The Formation of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral By Tom Watson Tom is a Trustee of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral and Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Media & Communication at Bournemouth University Introduction In 2021, the Friends of Winchester Cathedral celeBrates the 90th anniversary of its formation in 1931. This article sets out the early history of the Friends and the church and social contexts of its formation. Rather than Being an isolated event, the estaBlishment of the Friends was part of a major change that took place in the Church of England from the mid-1920s onwards and opened up cathedrals to Become the much-loved puBlic places of worship and tourism that we know today. I. Launch It was a wet St Swithun’s Day on 15th July 1931 and instead of meeting on the Deanery lawn for afternoon tea following the annual Festival service, the congregation gathered in Winchester Guildhall. With a rousing proposal speech By the Vice-Lieutenant of Hampshire, Sir William Portal (right), supported By the Mayor of Winchester, William Lansdell, the Headmaster of Winchester College, Canon Alwyn Williams, and Professor Reginald Gleadowe (also Winchester College), the meeting ‘welcomed the formation of an association of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral and assures the Dean and Chapter of its loyal support on any steps they may take with that end’.1 The meeting supported Sir William’s resolution which was ‘carried unanimously’.2 Dean Gordon Selwyn, who had arranged the meeting and Became the Friends’ inaugural Chairman, ‘pointed out that this would Be an association of the laity. The Dean and Chapter were not asking to find money and (would) not have any say in how it was spent’.3 The formation of the Friends association had happened at Break-neck speed (for a cathedral) as Dean Selwyn had only taken up office on the 1st of January that year. The first official notice that it was Being proposed came in the Hampshire Chronicle of the previous week in the Cathedral’s weekly notice of services: ‘Tea will Be followed at 1 “Report on St Swithun’s Day service and subsequent meeting, held in the Guildhall”, Hampshire Chronicle, July 18, 1931, p. 5. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 1 once By a short meeting … on the suBject of the “Friends of Winchester Cathedral … It is hoped that as many as possiBle will stay.’4 Another oBject of the meeting was to ‘launch the Miss Pesel’s and Miss Blunt’s embroideries for the choir’ which were expected to take several years to complete and needed a large group of volunteers.5 This was a precursor to the formation of The Broderers whose work has Been supported By the Friends since autumn 1931. However, the Winchester Diocesan Chronicle for July 1931 had not mentioned the proposed meeting, only the four services to Be held on St Swithun’s Day, which may indicate that Dean Selwyn was acting quickly Because he had been planning the formation of a Friends’ association since his arrival.6 Correspondence Between T.D. Atkinson, the Cathedral’s architectural surveyor, and the Dean on 18th FeBruary referred to ‘a fund such as “Friends of Winchester Cathedral” (which) would be extremely useful” for repairs to the Cathedral which Atkinson had listed.7 Had Dean Selwyn told the architect aBout his plans for a Friends’ association or was Atkinson suggesting it to the Dean? There is no evidence either way, But eight Cathedral Friends associations had already started and both men may have Been aware of this fund-raising model. Later in the year, an article in the Portsmouth newspaper, The Evening News, claimed that Dean Selwyn had ‘followed suit’ from the example of the new Portsmouth Cathedral’s Guild of Friends which he had known from his time as Rector of Red Hill, near Havant.8 This is, again, speculation as the Dean’s puBlic and private output makes no reference to it. II. Context After World War I ended in 1918, the Church was divided and confused with ‘no vision or great sense of purpose and direction’.9 The great loss of life in war and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19 had drained energy from society and the Church. Cathedrals did not welcome visitors and were closed for long periods, unless a verger could Be persuaded to open up on payment of six pence. Winchester and its near neighBour at Chichester had poor reputations for welcoming visitors. The writer of a tourist guide to southern cathedrals commented in 1925 that ‘one never passes the grille at either Winchester or Chichester, But a sentiment very like awe comes over one at the thought 4 “Notice on St Swithun’s Day services”, Hampshire Chronicle, July 11, 1931, p.7. 5 Ibid. 6 “St Swithun’s Day”, Winchester Diocesan Chronicle, XXXIX, no. 7 (July 1931): 124. (HRO: 44M68/G1/28-29). The Diocesan Chronicle was published at the beginning of each month for the Diocese of Winchester. The Cathedral submitted notices of its services for the ensuing month. 7 Letter from T. D. Atkinson to Dean Selwyn, 18th February 1931. (HRO catalogue: DC/E7/1/19/Repairs and Improvements). Atkinson’s typed letter set out “the most important of immediate needs of the Cathedral”. The contents and comments are typical of a report for a new Chief Executive from a senior member of staff. 8 “Where Kings Lie Buried”, The Evening News (Portsmouth), November 20, 1931, p. 8. The diocese of Portsmouth was established in 1927, with the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury in the port city designated as a pro-cathedral at that time. 9 Kenneth Hylson-Smith, The Churches in England from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II: Volume III, 1833–1998 (London: SCM Press, 1998), 169. 2 that one is trespassing in what was for years the Holy of Holies’.10 By comparison Salisbury Cathedral was lauded for its openness where visitors ‘were left to stroll aBout freely and unconcernedly’.11 In the same year, the ArchBishop of York, Cosmo Lang (later ArchBishop of Canterbury), commented that for many diocese and parishes ‘the cathedral is still a place remote and strange’.12 However, the attitude of closure to the puBlic and remoteness from the rest of the church was challenged By Dean Frank Bennett of Chester who wrote in 1925 that cathedrals had ‘come to Be regarded as something like the special property of a small corporation’.13 Bennett literally threw open the doors at Chester Cathedral in early 1920s, ended the six pence entry fee and sought voluntary contriButions instead. Vergers, instead of receiving topped-up income from visitor fees, were given proper salaries. Dean Bennett was a remarkaBle churchman and leader often found in the cathedral meeting and counselling visitors. He was considered a ‘genius’ who transformed Chester and set up a model of openness that many English cathedrals soon embraced.14 Other cathedrals adopted the “Friends of” model from the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge (1909) and the Bodleian LiBrary in Oxford (1925), with the outcome Being that Canterbury Cathedral founded the first cathedral Friends association in 1927, followed By Peterborough in the same year, York (1928) and Exeter (1929). Dean George Bell of Canterbury, later Bishop of Chichester, wrote to The Times in 1927 that his cathedral’s Friends’ association had a simple oBject ‘to gather round the Cathedral in association with the Dean and Chapter a Body of supporters who are prepared to take some share in caring for it and preserving it for posterity’.15 As will Be shown, it was the Canterbury model that Winchester would emulate. In Winchester, Dean William Hutton (1919 – 1930) and Chapter ended fees to visit the Cathedral in 1925 and followed the trend to rely on voluntary contriButions, often the antecedent to the formation of Friends’ Bodies.16 Dean Hutton also aided his successor’s strategy By estaBlishing the Cathedral’s annual festival in St Swithun’s tide, welcoming diocesan groups, encouraging education and introducing loudspeakers to the Cathedral.17 10 Frances M. Gostling, The Lure of the English Cathedrals (Southern), 2nd ed. (London: Mills & Boon, 1925), 145. 11 Ibid. 12 Roger Lloyd, The Church of England 1900-1965 (London: SCM Press, 1966), 387. 13 Judith A. Muskett, “From Sixpenny Entry to Five Shilling Subscriptions: Charting Cathedral Outreach and Friends’ Associations in the 1920s and 1930s”, Journal of Anglican Studies 10, no. 1, (2012): 100. 14 Lloyd, Church of England, 393. 15 Dean of Canterbury (Rev G. K. A. Bell), “A NEW SOCIETY”, The Times, July 20, 1927, p. 17. 16 A memorandum, dated 1925, concerning abolition of entry fees and their replacement with voluntary gifts placed in boxes is in the Cathedral ledger for 1921-64 (HRO: DC/C1/76/D6). It also includes a payment to local printers Warrens for ‘Free to Visitors’ notices in the same year. (HRO: DC/C1/76/H6) 17 Keith Walker, “The 20th Century and the Future”, in Winchester Cathedral – Nine Hundred Years 1093 – 1993, ed. John Crook (Chichester: Phillimore, 1993), 339. 3 By 1931, Winchester city had a population of 22,970 which had declined By 3.45 per cent since the post-World War I census in 1921. The district’s population had also dropped By 4.5 percent to 61,986. However, Because of the expansion of social housing in Lower Stanmore and smaller households, the number of houses had risen By 13.8 percent to 5364. This period was in the depth of the Great Depression But Winchester’s unemployment rate that year was 7.33 per cent, which was Below the national average of 13.8 per cent and well Below areas such as South Tyneside and Merthyr Tydfil where more than a quarter of the population was out of work.